Matilda

Miss Honey moved the now-empty glass to the middle of the table. 'Should I put water in it?' she asked, smiling a little.

'I don't think it matters,' Matilda said.

'Very well, then. Go ahead and tip it over.'

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'It may take some time.'

'Take all the time you want,' Miss Honey said. 'I'm in no hurry.'

Matilda, sitting in the second row about ten feet away from Miss Honey, put her elbows on the desk and cupped her face in her hands, and this time she gave the order right at the beginning. 'Tip glass, tip!' she ordered, but her lips didn't move and she made no sound. She simply shouted the words inside her head. And now she concentrated the whole of her mind and her brain and her will up into her eyes and once again but much more quickly than before she felt the electricity gathering and the power was beginning to surge and the hotness was coming into the eyeballs, and then the millions of tiny invisible arms with hands on them were shooting out towards the glass, and without making any sound at all she kept on shouting inside her head for the glass to go over. She saw it wobble, then it tilted, then it toppled right over and fell with a tinkle on to the table-top not twelve inches from Miss Honey's folded arms.

Miss Honey's mouth dropped open and her eyes stretched so wide you could see the whites all round. She didn't say a word. She couldn't. The shock of seeing the miracle performed had struck her dumb. She gaped at the glass, leaning well away from it now as though it might be a dangerous thing. Then slowly she lifted her head and looked at Matilda. She saw the child white in the face, as white as paper, trembling all over, the eyes glazed, staring straight ahead and seeing nothing. The whole face was transfigured, the eyes round and bright, and she was sitting there speechless, quite beautiful in a blaze of silence.

Miss Honey waited, trembling a little herself and watching the child as she slowly stirred herself back into consciousness. And then suddenly, click went her face into a look of almost seraphic calm. 'I'm all right,' she said and smiled. 'I'm quite all right, Miss Honey, so don't be alarmed.'

'You seemed so far away,' Miss Honey whispered, awestruck.

'Oh, I was. I was flying past the stars on silver wings,' Matilda said. 'It was wonderful.'

Miss Honey was still gazing at the child in absolute wonderment, as though she were The Creation, The Beginning Of The World, The First Morning.

'It went much quicker this time,' Matilda said quietly.

'It's not possible!' Miss Honey was gasping. 'I don't believe it! I simply don't believe it!' She closed her eyes and kept them closed for quite a while, and when she opened them again it seemed as though she had gathered herself together. 'Would you like to come back and have tea at my cottage?' she asked.

'Oh, I'd love to,' Matilda said.

'Good. Gather up your things and I'll meet you outside in a couple of minutes.'

'You won't tell anyone about this ... this thing that I did, will you, Miss Honey?'

'I wouldn't dream of it,' Miss Honey said.

Miss Honey's Cottage

Miss Honey joined Matilda outside the school gates and the two of them walked in silence through the village High Street. They passed the greengrocer with his window full of apples and oranges, and the butcher with bloody lumps of meat on display and naked chickens hanging up, and the small bank, and the grocery store and the electrical shop, and then they came out at the other side of the village on to the narrow country road where there were no people any more and very few motor-cars.

And now that they were alone, Matilda all of a sudden became wildly animated. It seemed as though a valve had burst inside her and a great gush of energy was being released. She trotted beside Miss Honey with wild little hops and her fingers flew as if she would scatter them to the four winds and her words went off like fireworks, with terrific speed.

It was Miss Honey this and Miss Honey that and Miss Honey I do honestly feel I could move almost anything in the world, not just tipping over glasses and little things like that ... I feel I could topple tables and chairs, Miss Honey ... Even when people are sitting in the chairs I think I could push them over, and bigger things too, much bigger things than chairs and tables ... I only have to take a moment to get my eyes strong and then I can push it out, this strongness, at anything at all so long as I am staring at it hard enough ... I have to stare at it very hard, Miss Honey, very very hard, and then I can feel it all happening behind my eyes, and my eyes get hot just as though they were burning but I don't mind that in the least, and Miss Honey ...'

'Calm yourself down, child, calm yourself down,' Miss Honey said. 'Let us not get ourselves too worked up so early in the proceedings.'

'But you do think it is interesting, don't you, Miss Honey?'

'Oh, it is interesting all right,' Miss Honey said. 'It is more than interesting. But we must tread very carefully from now on, Matilda.'

'Why must we tread carefully, Miss Honey?'

'Because we are playing with mysterious forces, my child, that we know nothing about. I do not think they are evil. They may be good. They may even be divine. But whether they are or not, let us handle them carefully.'

These were wise words from a wise old bird, but Matilda was too steamed up to see it that way. 'I don't see why we have to be so careful?' she said, still hopping about.

'I am trying to explain to you,' Miss Honey said patiently, 'that we are dealing with the unknown. It is an unexplainable thing. The right word for it is a phenomenon. It is a phenomenon.'

'Am I a phenomenon?' Matilda asked.